Game Time Thread: Juventus vs. Atalanta

It’s been many, many months since we’ve seen a good amount of people inside of Allianz Stadium. It was a necessity, of course, as Italy dealt with multiple waves of the pandemic, and as Italy continues to slowly reopen and gets back to some semblance of normality, part of that is seeing Juventus supporters make their way back to the stadium they love.

The first of those occasions just so happens to be today.

Fans are officially back in the stands for Juventus’ friendly against Atalanta tonight. You should be happy about this for the simple fact that it also means Juve’s season opener against Udinese is right around the corner, with Ferragosto marking exactly one week before Max Allegri manages an official game once again. First, though, Juve gets to face Atalanta in a rare Serie A vs. Serie A friendly that doesn’t have a silly un-important cup or trophy attached to it.

Go ahead and look! Fans at the stadium!

HOW GLORIOUS IT IS TO SEE FANS WALKING AROUND THAT PLACE AGAIN.

Sure, it comes in a game that won’t mean anything in the Serie A table or anything outside of getting more match fitness, but after the last 16 months we have all sat through, seeing — and especially hearing — fans at the Allianz Stadium again will be fun as hell.

Yes, even in a friendly.

And it just so happens that this friendly, Juve’s last of the summer, comes against a team that will almost certainly be considered a rival for the Scudetto if Juventus finds itself amongst those clubs around the top of the table later on this coming season.

Let us hope for no injuries. Let us hope that Merih Demiral isn’t completely overly amped up to play the team he was just a part of two weeks ago. Let us hope that this end up a little bit better than the Barcelona friendly last weekend. And, most of us, let us hope that Juventus can maybe score a goal or two on top of getting their match fitness work in.

MATCH INFO

When: Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021

Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy

Official kickoff time: 8:30 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe; 7:30 p.m. in the United Kingdom; 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time; 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time

STARTING LINEUPS

Juventus starting XI (4-4-2 or 4-3-3): Szczesny; Cuadrado, de Ligt, Bonucci, Alex Sandro; Bernardeschi, Ramsey, Bentancur, Chiesa; Dybala, Ronaldo

Juventus bench: Pinsoglio, Perin, De Sciglio, Chiellini, Danilo, Morata, McKennie, Pellegrini, Rugani, Fagioli, Kulusevski, Ranocchia, De Winter

Atalanta starting XI (3-4-1-2): Musso; Djimsiti, Demiral, Palomino; Maehle, Pasalic, Freuler, Gosens; Pessina; Ilicic, Muriel

Atalanta bench: Rossi, Sportiello, Toloi, Sutalo, Pezzella, De Roon, Malinovskyi, Delparto, Scalvini, Da Riva, Lovato, Piccoli

HOW TO WATCH

Television: Premier Sports 1 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport 252 (Italy)

Online/mobile: ESPN+ (United States); Premier Player HD (United Kingdom); Sky Go Italia, NOW TV (Italy)

Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.